Dive Brief:
- New wind and solar power projects that came online in November totaled 627 MW according to FERC's Office of Energy Projects, more than 70% of total added generation. Natural gas installed 140 MW in the month, and coal added 106 MW.
- Three wind farms came online in in November, adding 333 MW of capacity, and solar added 294 MW of capacity through 14 additional units. There were no other renewable capacity additions in the month.
- For the full year natural gas capacity additions have reached 5,513 MW through November. Wind and solar have combined for 4,728 MW so far in 2014, while geothermal, hydro and biomass have added about 450 MW of capacity this year.
Dive Insight:
Almost all of wind power capacity additions in November came from two projects according to FERC's Energy Infrastructure Update. Stella Wind Farm’s 182 MW Panhandle Wind Farm Phase II expansion project in Texas is now online, as is Origin Wind Energy LLC’s 150 MW Oklahoma facility.
It is possible that natural gas will add fewer total MW in 2014 than solar, wind, hydro, biomass and geothermal. Combined, the renewable fuels have brought 5,183 MW online thus far in 2014. Coal, nuclear and oil-fired generation have added less than 225 MW so far this year.
There were no transmission projects brought online in November, but FERC noted Clean Line Energy Partners advanced the $2 billion, 500-mile Rock Island transmission project by asking the Iow regulators for permission to build across 16 counties in the state. Once all approvals are in hand, FERC said the 600 kV DC project will take about seven years to complete.
On the natural gas side, two pipeline projects were placed into service with 350 MMcf/d of capacity.
Transco's Northeast Connector Project will provide 100 MMcf/d of capacity from its existing system in York County, Pa., to an interconnection between its existing Lower NY Bay and proposed Rockaway laterals. Transco also placed into service a portion of its Virginia Southside Expansion Project which will provide 250 MMcf/d of mainline capacity and bi-directional flow for Virginia Power Services from New Jersey to North Carolina.
